Beloved reader,
As has become a 2024 tradition, the first Monday of the month is written as a journal entry.
Me directly addressing you.
No story of my children and the dishwasher with some wisdom in it this week.
What follows is a collection of 12 Rabbi Brian Wisdom Biscuits—spiritualigious quips and thoughts.
Each of the following is something I penned on an index card, a receipt, or a to-go box—and then flushed out into a spiritualigious thought.
None developed into a full article.
They offered to you here—a robust collection of 12 spiritualigious thoughts.
With love,
❤️ rB
And, as with the recent Collection of 26 Quotations, I suggest you find one that speaks to you and then close the proverbial menu until you are hungry for more.
12 Rabbi Brian Wisdom Biscuits
Do you like to be corrected frequently by strangers and/or loved ones?
Most people don’t.
Maybe you can stop doing it to others?
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I know a lot of facts that can explain the leap Christianity made from a movement of love to one that causes additional trauma and hurt for so many people. But I still can’t wrap my mind around it.
Similarly mind boggling is Judaism’s derailment from a religion of liberation and connection to God to one of strict beliefs and practices, apart from God.
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I was fantasizing about the proper quip Annie should say to any adult critical of her new nose piercing, and I settled on: ”This probably will not have any effect on your future.”
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“Once you DECIDE to see how charming that is, you’ll be surprised how much less it will bother you.”
The above is a phrase Larry told me he learned from a couples therapist (Dr. Logan Fox) when 60+ years ago Virginia’s flirting with other men bothered Larry.
Powerful words.
The more I find Jane/my kids/another driver/you to be charming, the less bothered I am.
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The goal: Being kind (at all times), (the best we can,) (to as many people as possible).
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Pain is not optional.
Suffering is.
To some degree.
How much are you a slave to your reactions?
Can you change them?
Are you actively trying to add space between what happens and your rush to react?
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Comparing yourself to a four-year old, who is more likely to express to someone, “I don’t like that?”
I’ve found many adults have a hard time setting such a simple boundary.
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Try to give four neutral-to-positive comments for every correction you give.
Not only to others, but to yourself.
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See if, one out of five times, you can let it go and not correct another, so long as they are at least 70% correct.
(If you want to do this with a group, email me. I’m assembling an accountability group.)
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What is your contribution to how annoying others are?
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Ought we __________ people for being human?
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If people you hang out with talk about someone as the kindest person they know, and that person is not you, are you alright with that?
